Are we too cautious for our own good?

We have snow. Judith slipped on our way to our twice weekly walk in the woods yesterday and sprained her ankle. Although we normally either walk or cycle to do our local shopping, etc., it's not on at the moment and yesterday I needed to brush the snow off the car, help Judith into the vehicle and we set through the grey, greasy streets of downtown Viernheim to visit the GP's surgery and the local cottage hospital. I was amazed to see people on bicycles. The streets of Viernheim were slippery either because of a thin layer of dirty grey slush or because of a thicker layer of hard packed snow. The cyclists were slithering uncertainly around. Sensible motorists were driving at 20kph rather than the 30kph allowed, well we were. It takes about 40 minutes to walk from one side of Viernheim to the other, so although a bicycle offers a speed advantage when the weather is reasonable, there is little advantage in risking a broken collarbone or even death to save a few minutes.